COMEDY REVIEW: Jack Docherty: Miekelson and McGlashan – Serious Men

How will the Scottish police cope in post-Brexit Cumbernauld? What is the best slogan for a modern police force? Is Miekelson’s autobiography ‘My Struggle’ going to sell in Germany?

Jack Docherty is on great form in his role as Chief Constable Cameron Miekelson from the mockumentary Scot Squad. Miekelson tries to keep up with modern PC attitudes in the police and from various political directives while trying to prop up his own reputation and that of the police, never getting it right of course. This performance covers plenty ground with anecdotes from the job and politics. It’s hilarious and daft.

Second up is the character McGlashan from Channel 4 comedy show Absolutely from the late 80s/early 90s, which Docherty also wrote. McGlashan is an anti-English fanatic and confused nationalist who hates the SNP for being too anti-independence. Docherty spends a lot of the performance trying to restick his fake moustache which keeps peeling off. The anti-English chatter of McGlashan gets plenty of laughs but it feels old as a concept. Miekelson is bang up to date discussing Brexit and putting his foot in it about trans people. McGlashan feels like a blast from the past, and so is underwhelming by comparison. Perhaps if he explored more about the dichotomy between the SNP’s support of independence from Westminster but not from the EU it would be more cutting edge? General anti-English feeling has also faded so far from the mainstream of Scottish life I don’t think it works that well as satire.

That said, this was the best laugh I’ve had at a comedy show in ages.